Virtual New Innami County 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Entsu-ji Temple

 

     During the Kamakura Period (1185–1333), a monk collaborated with local residents to build Jigen-do, a hall in the northeastern part of Sone Village (Innami County, Harima Province). It enshrined 33 statues of Avalokitesvara (Kannon) and flourished as a major center of Kannon worship; however, the hall eventually fell into disrepair. In 1489, Priest Tsuho and the locals relocated the hall to its current site and founded Entsu-ji Temple.

     This founding date of 1489 highly likely reflects the turbulent political climate of the era. Decades earlier, Akamatsu Masanori (1455–1496) had miraculously revived the Akamatsu clan, seizing the chaos of the Onin War (1467–1477) to launch a "Reconquista" of Harima Province in 1467. Yet, as the proverb goes, fortune and misfortune are intertwined like the strands of a rope. Internal conflicts soon fractured the Akamatsu clan, enticing Yamana Masatoyo (1441–1499) to invade Harima from the San'in region. It was only in July 1488 that Masatoyo finally withdrew his forces. Following years of devastating warfare, Priest Tsuho and the locals undoubtedly had compelling reasons—perhaps to pray for peace, mourn the war dead, or celebrate the restoration of stability—to establish a new temple at this precise moment. Today, Entsu-ji also serves as the 30th site on the Harima 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

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